This invention relates generally to material handling systems, and more particularly to automated container storage and delivery systems.
Manufacturers, retailers, and distributors must store and deliver great quantities of goods at a time. Many such users have hundreds if not thousands of products. Orders are received from customers and material handling systems must locate inventory and then route inventory necessary to fill the orders to an appropriate location for shipping or delivery. Through-put is a concern as sometimes many thousands of containers per hour must be processed through a single facility. Intelligent control systems have been developed to track customer orders, inventory, and the routing of the inventory necessary to fill the customer orders. Automation is a solution for reducing the amount of manual labor necessary to fill such orders, as manual labor tends to reduce reliability and through-put, and increases costs.
Individual container storage and delivery systems have been developed which are capable of storing multiple stock keeping units (SKUs) of different products and variations in products, such as size, color, quantity, and flavoring. Such systems mechanize the process of filling orders for multiple containers having different SKUs in an efficient and reliable manner. Such systems, however, can require a great deal of floor space and can be costly to install and use.
Grace, U.S. Pat. No. 4,621,745, discloses an individual container storage and delivery system (ICSDS) in which a vertically accumulating storage and retrieval system (VASRS) for containers is loaded at the top of a tower and selectively dispenses at the bottom. The tower has a frame that defines first and second tower sections, each supporting a number of vertically spaced shelf trays which in turn support the containers which are stacked on the trays when loaded. The shelf trays of each tower section face inwardly toward and are staggered relative to each other. Each tray is mounted for pivotal movement about a horizontal axis and is operated so that when a container is dispensed from a bottom shelf tray, each higher tray beginning at the bottom and progressing upward one at a time, pivots to transfer its carton to the upwardly tilted, next lower, empty shelf tray. This process is repeated until each container has been transferred to the next lower shelf tray. As a container is loaded at the top of the tower, the shelf trays are operated to pass the container downwardly in a zig-zag fashion from one tray to another until it reaches the highest unloaded shelf tray.
ICSDS systems such as vertically accumulating storage and dispensing apparatus provide an efficient methodology for delivering containers having many different SKUs. However, many customer orders require a few containers having different SKUs, and many containers having the same SKUs. That is, many customer orders require many containers of a few popular SKUs, and then various lesser amounts of containers of less popular SKUs. ICSDS systems deliver the containers typically under computer control to a conveyor system which conveys the containers to a palletizer. At the palletizer, the containers are placed onto a pallet layer-by-layer. It is a time consuming process to deliver individual containers to the palletizer, and to place these containers onto the pallet, even in a fully automated system.
A material storage and delivery system includes an individual container storage and delivery system (ICSDS). A palletizer places containers from the ICSDS on a pallet. A layer storage and delivery system (LSDS) places full layers of containers on a pallet. A robotic container delivery system (RCDS) places individual containers on a pallet. A conveyor system conveys containers and pallets between the ICSDS, the palletizer, the LSDS, the RCDS, and delivery/shipping.
The ICSDS preferably comprises a vertically accumulating storage and retrieval system. A depalletizer system can be provided for delivering containers to the ICSDS.
The LSDS can include a full layer storage system for storing full layers of containers, and apparatus for taking the full layers of containers and placing the full layers of containers on a pallet. The LSDS can comprise a pallet magazine for delivering empty pallets to a position for receiving the full layers of containers.
A control system is provided for delivering containers and pallets bearing containers between the ICSDS, the palletizer, the LSDS, the RCDS, and shipping or delivery. The control system can receive inventory data and order data. The inventory data preferably comprises container position data in the ICSDS. The control system can determine pallet configurations from the order data. The pallet configurations can comprise the number of full layers of containers having homogeneous SKU""s and whether such layers can be provided by the LSDS. The control system, if the number of homogeneous SKU layers in the order is available from the LSDS and exceeds a predetermined threshold, can direct the LSDS to place the requested number of homogeneous SKU layers on a pallet. The control system can direct a pallet having the homogeneous SKU layers to the RCDS and cause the RCDS to place heterogeneous layers of containers on the pallet in addition to the homogeneous SKU layers that were placed on the pallet by the LSDS. The control system can alternatively direct the pallet from the LSDS to the palletizer.
The control system can direct pallets from the palletizer to the RCDS and cause the RCDS to place heterogeneous layers of containers on the pallet. The control system will, if the number of homogeneous layers of containers requested by the order does not exceed the predetermined threshold, cause the ICSDS to deliver an equivalent number of the containers to the palletizer for placement on a pallet.
The control system can determine the number of homogeneous package type layers of containers and, if the number of homogeneous package type layers requested by the order is above a threshold, direct the containers to be sent to the palletizer and, if below a threshold or if the containers are not of homogeneous package type, cause the containers to be sent to the RCDS. If the control system determines that homogeneous SKU layers are also necessary, it can direct the pallet from the palletizer to the LSDS and direct the LSDS to place the homogeneous SKU layers of containers on the pallet. If additional containers are necessary to complete the pallet, the control system directs the pallet to the RCDS to place incomplete layers of containers or containers having heterogeneous package type onto the pallet.